For the past few decades, the internet has totally dominated so many people’s day to day lives. It’s transformed the way we work and live. If you aren’t currently using the internet as part of your marketing strategy, instead opting for more traditional forms of advertising, then you’re missing a trick. Here’s why…
1. Your competitors are doing it!
Regardless of the product or services you provide, there is always competition out there taking away from your potential customer base. Utilizing marketing techniques such as SEO (what is an SEO service?) can help get your company to the top of the search results on Google. This can lead to increased traffic to your website and help you draw in customers before they even have a chance to stumble across your competitors’ sites.
2. Your customers are online
Internet marketing is essential because the internet is such an essential part of people’s everyday lives. For most people, when searching for a particular service or product, the first thing they do is use a search engine or look it up on social media. Even if you operate locally, your customer base is online and using the internet to find the nearest services they want.
Whatever your business type, the internet is where people go to shop, work, seek entertainment or information – basically, where they live their entire lives. Unless you get involved in online marketing, your company will fail to reach any new customers and possibly risk losing existing ones.
3. It increases your visibility to those that matter
By using online marketing techniques your business can reach hundreds of people. Not only this, but you can exert some control over the types of people who view your content via the methods you use to ensure that you are only reaching leads you know will be interested in your business.
Through internet marketing you can target audiences by demographic, socioeconomic status, hobbies and interests, or spending habits.
4. It is a way of communicating directly with your customers
A key difference in internet marketing when compared with more traditional methods, is that it creates two-way communication with your customers or potential customers. It provides a way for consumers to contact your business through social media or email, or simply by making your phone number available to access online.
This is a great way to build a relationship with your customers and can aid in securing repeat business as it goes hand in hand with good customer service.
5. Personalize your customer’s experience
Potential customers want to feel as though they matter to your business, and internet marketing helps create a more personalized experience, so they do not feel like just another number. This way you can target your marketing efforts specifically for the qualities a consumer is looking for – people will go to your company for different reasons, and it is important to cover these in your marketing efforts as opposed to more generalised marketing material for all.
6. You can multitask
With online marketing you can run multiple campaigns at once. You can run lots of campaigns targeting a variety of different customer types, using multiple channels and media providers, without compromising on the quality of any of them.
As your website can handle millions of customers at once and your marketing efforts should reflect this by reaching as many possible customers as you can.